Texas- Bo & Cassidy

From Lumberton we headed south for Galveston and the Beus'. We had so much fun. I wish we could have stayed longer there was so much to do. We got there Sunday afternoon and had to leave early Tuesday morning so we really only had one day to take it in. Sunday we just hung out at the house and the kids played in the backyard. They loved it. Sam has been talking about his friend Carter since Christmas
so he was really glad to see him at his house. Although, Cass, he thinks
you all are coming here very soon.

They look all relaxed but when we got the cards out, that went away.
Just for the record, the girls won the first game and just barely lost the second!

This picture looks deceiving they really did get along well.

Logan and Meg. I do have the cutest picture of them, but in the back is Cass
bend over sweeping and since I don't want my butt shot for all to see I won't put hers
on either. But trust me they are beautiful babies!!

Monday we got up early and hit the beach! I could have stayed there all day! It was beautiful. We found seashells and build sand castles and played in the water! SO MUCH FUN!!

Logan and I looking for seashells.

The guys getting water for the sand castle. This is the only picture of Sam.
Shortly after he tripped and got wet and then was done. It was a nice day but windy.
Cassidy said it really wasn't that windy but Sam did not agree.

The boys wandered down the rock breaker thing. Dave said Logan
wanted to get in at the end of it.

I decided to let go of my fear of sharks for a few minutes and let Logan go
swimming, not like if I would have said no he would have listened. Dave kept
moving him back up but he kept going deeper in the water. He had a blast. He
was really trying to swim in that shallow of water too, it was so cute.

Dave was spinning Logan and getting him to spray water with his feet,
Logan always love to get people wet so of course this was the activity for him.

For dinner we went to Rainforest Cafe. I love it there, it's just so cool.
The kids were not all that impressed, but the food was good.

Dave trying to tongue the snake! ( I made him)

Logan was LOVING this frog. He kept hugging and kissing him, I may be gross
but it was really cute. I ended up buying them a little frog for there collection. I love
spending time with Bo and Cassidy, we always has so much fun. I love that we can just
sit on the floor and play cards in our PJ's all night long. Thanks for letting us camp out at
your house and playing tour guides for a couple of short days! We love you guys so much!

Texas Ratcliffs

We went to Lumberton Texas to visit Erik and Sarah Ratcliff. They are such good friends we met at BYU. Dave and Erik were in some of the same classes. We talk often but haven't seen them for over 4 years. For our anniversary we decided to go on a road trip to see some friends. We had such a blast! Dave and Erik spent all day Saturday fishing which is the perfect day for them and Sarah and I did some shopping and took the kids to a kid fest. I wish we lived closer, we always have so much fun with them! We will have to make seeing them an annual event. Thanks so much for letting us crash at our house and play for the weekend!

This sums it up!
Erik and Sarah! We love them!!

Friday morning we went to a bounce house in Beaumont. The boys love the Bounce house. We have one here in Jackson but they liked this one better because it had the girls!!

Dave and Erik decided they were just the right size for them so
they hopped in and had a party. The big boys may have had more fun than the little kids.

Friday evening we ordered some Pizza Hut and headed to Silsbee Park and went fishing. We had some much fun. The boys had a blast and it was fishing so Dave couldn't think of a better way to spend Friday night. I love to fish especially when I can stand on a bridge and fish without touching the grass and weeds.

There was ducks at Silsbee park. We wanted to feed them tortillas but
they weren't interested in them, we found later there was a HUGE bag of corn
spread over the other side of the pond.

Sam's first fish. He is an awesome fisherman!

Logan's first fish! He was so excited until it wiggled, then he was
over it and wanted to play.

I tried to hold it still for a picture, without actually touching it.
Logan feels it is way to close to him. If that fence hadn't been
behind us he would have jumped in the water to get away.

This is the biggest one of the day. Dave loves spending time with Erik.
I'm so glad we got to visit.

Madelyn touched every fish we pulled out while my boys won't touch any of
them so Erik held this one and made both boys touch it. The next second Sam touched
it's fin and it poked him. No more fish for Sam.

We were catching whoppers!

On Saturday Sarah's brother told her about a kids fair going on so we decided
to check it out. It was AWESOME!! They had so many booths and the kids walked away
2 bags of candy/stuffed animals/crafts each. We had so much fun driving the firetruck
and checking everything out.

The kids got their faces painted (Sam-Tiger, Madelyn-Kitty, Logan-Batman)
I had them stand behind this fence and pretend to be in a zoo. This was the
best picture I got.

Lindsey, just SO CUTE!

Sam and Madelyn (his 'sister') They absolutely loved each other. Sam still
a month later doesn't call her by her name just 'my sister'. I love it.

Dave's First Ticket.....

EVER!! Dave is always so good about getting us where we need to be in a record setting time. I love that about him. He can go as fast as he wants and I swear the cops will wave at him. If I even get behind the wheel on the freeway I get a ticket! I will drive if Dave is tired, but normally Dave does all the driving and I talk at him to keep him awake.When we were driving to Texas for a fun weekend in April, to see friends we were making excellent time. We made it all the way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On the map it said we were on a scenic route and we were! The freeway was a raised road for with a swamp under it. I KNEW that there had to be alligators in it so I was making Dave look for them because I couldn't see that far down and over . Well......Dave started to pass this old lady and a sneaky cop STANDING on the side of the road started waving frantically at Dave. Dave looked at him and he waved Dave over to the side. I may have told him to keep going because he could just say that he didn't know he was pointing to us but Dave is better than me and pulled over. The cop came to the window and told Dave he clocked him doing 83 in a 60. OUCH!! Not only that but we are driving a rental car and Dave can't find his license. It was a stressful few minutes while he searched and Sam is in the back saying "Dad, do you do something very naughty?" I still think it is super funny, but then I have had PLENTY of tickets and so a $200 ticket doesn't seem like that much money compared to mine (I hate Oregon!) Dave still doesn't think it's funny! Welcome to the club Babe!

Playgroup Easter

Since our camera stopped working before Easter. These are the only pictures I have of the boys looking for eggs. We hid eggs in our back yard for playgroup and let them find them. I told Sam that since he was the oldest he had to help the little ones find eggs too. He spent the whole time helping other kids; he had the least eggs of everyone because he was trying so hard to be a helper. (not picking his nose)
Something touched his face right as I took the picture. He was mid 'get it off'.

I had to follow Logan around so he would pick up the eggs he was seeing. He would just get excited and point to them then leave them there for the next person.
Silly boy!

They decided they could wait any longer to check out their loot.

ALL BY MYSELF

Logan started his breathing treatments about the same time as Dave's surgery. Every couple of months he has to take them for a couple of weeks. Normally we have to sit him in our laps and hold it over his nose so he will breathe it in, but this time he wanted to do it himself. He wants to shake the medicine, squirt it in and turn it on. He actually sits and takes it really good. He does want to turn it off before it's empty but we just remind him to finish and he does. I love that he is such a big boy! I'm sad that he has to know how to do it all by himself. But if he has to do it he wants to do it alone. I love that Shawn White is about to make his run and Logan is so intently watching him. You can't see us cheering wildly for him in back but Logan is so mellow.

Useless Organs

Dave ended up getting his Appendix out on Friday, February 19. The surgery went really well and faster than expected. They had prepared us for a long 3 hour surgery, but they only had him in the OR for 1 hour at the most. It was a LONG 1 hour but the surgeon told me it had healed really nicely and everything came out beautifully. We got to come home 3 hours after his surgery. He hurt, but was back to work by Monday morning. SUCH A MAN! He did hurt very bad Monday night and we got him to take his pain pills. He was more upset that they shaved his stomach than the pain. We tallied all the bills that came because of his 'useless organ' and they came to a grand total of $27,250. We are SO lucky we have GREAT insurance and had to pay less that $1,000 of it. I'm glad it's over and he is better.

We're going back people

These last few months have been a whirlwind!! I need to get caught up on blogging for our journaling sake. My camera just stopped working right before Easter with all the pictures I needed upload. So bare with me as I try to remember all the way back to 2 months ago.

7 Years!

It's hard to believe that we have been married for 7 years. 7 YEARS!!! Am I that old? These last 7 years have been a wild ride. I'm so lucky to have found a man that is as great as Dave. I love him so much. He is such a great Dad and husband. The boys are CRAZY about him. All day Sam has told anyone that will listen that I am getting married tonight. I do believe he found his own babysitter for tonight also. He is so thoughtful. I'm excited to see what is in store for us in the next 7 years. I have such a cute family, I'm so lucky!

Its all gone!

All those beautiful curls are gone! Dave has been telling me we need to cut his hair for months now- like 8 months, but it is just to cute! Well, Logan has had a fever for a few days now and is so hot and sweaty that I decided to be a nice mom and cut it for him. By cut it, I mean buzz it because those are the skills I have in the hair cutting department. I know he is not going to hold still for anyone, so taking him to someone else seemed dumb. I sat him in the bathroom and cried as I saw all his gorgeous blond curls fall to the floor. I guess the good in all of this is that he wasn't so hot last night and he slept.
But these curls will be back in a few short months.

My camera decided to stop working on Easter so the pictures were taken with the boys camera. Not all that clear but still pictures.

Children's Museum

While Linda, Dave's Mom. was here we took the kids to The Children's Museum in Memphis. The boys had so much fun. It had so much for them to do, and try. There were only 4 or 5 other kids there, so we pretty much were able to let them run wild and go from place to place without worrying about other people. This is a stage where they had dress-up and you could dance and play different instruments. They didn't have any desire to dress up but the played and danced around. I think they should start a band.

The Mississippi River was neat and SO WET!! Everyone was SOAKED after playing but they loved it. There was fishing poles and nets to catch fish and boats. They could have stayed there all day to play.

Logan's potential future......?

Sam loved the Airplane, the picture is blurry because he wouldn't
stay turned around for even a second.

Grocery shopping was made for Logan! He is my shopping helper, we do our shopping when Sam is at school. He had a blast in there. The rules are you can only get 3 things, but we were the only ones in there. I unloaded his cart so many times so he could refill it.

Sam just wanted to check everyone out. He is a good cashier, but
he gets to keep ALL the receipts.

It was just so cool! A mini Kroger!

Logan is NOT allowed to be in the car at all unless he is buckled, so he loved being
able to drive and just around in there.

This just proves that Logan IS a Marlatt! I love it! He is just so cute and SO excited about Ice Cream. The simple pleasures in life.